Local MP supports the 1 in 3 women world-wide with no toilet facilities
Fiona Bruce MP for the Congleton Constituency is adding her voice to a global campaign to support the one in three women around the world that have no access to a safe toilet.
International charity WaterAid is asking governments to keep the promises they have made to get adequate sanitation and safe water to the world’s poorest people.
Living without a toilet is not just an inconvenience; it impacts on all aspects of life, and it is women and girls who suffer the most. Not only does this expose them to illness, it also increases the risk of shame, fear and even violence when they are forced to go outside in search of somewhere private to go to the toilet.
Fiona Bruce said: “It’s easy for us to take for granted having clean toilets at home and safe drinking water at the turn of the tap, but millions of people across the world aren’t so lucky. In fact, 783 million people have no clean water to drink, while 2.5 billion do not have a toilet.
“Water and sanitation transform lives and I believe everyone should have access to these vital services. I am proud that the UK Government recently committed to double the number of people they plan to reach with water, sanitation and hygiene by 2015. I’m adding my voice in support of those without a safe toilet and invite others in our constituency to join me.”
“Water and sanitation transform lives and I believe everyone should have access to these vital services. I am proud that the UK Government recently committed to double the number of people they plan to reach with water, sanitation and hygiene by 2015. I’m adding my voice in support of those without a safe toilet and invite others in our constituency to join me.”
A recent survey commissioned by WaterAid of women living across five slums in Lagos, Nigeria, highlighted this problem. One in five women had first or second hand experience of verbal harassment and intimidation, or had been threatened or physically assaulted in the past year when going to the toilet. These experiences of fear, indignity and violence are commonplace wherever women lack access to safe and adequate sanitation.
Barbara Frost, Chief Executive of WaterAid, said:
“When women don’t have a safe, secure and private place to go to the toilet they are exposed and put in a vulnerable position and when they relieve themselves in the open they risk harassment. Women are reluctant to talk about it or complain, but the world cannot continue to ignore this.
“Adequate sanitation, coupled with access to clean, safe water to drink, transforms lives, improving health, safety and productivity. Governments are urged to take action and invest in access to sanitation and water.”
Other studies from Uganda, Kenya, India and the Solomon Islands show that such experiences of fear, indignity and violence are common place wherever women lack access to safe and adequate sanitation.
Katherine Mulemba, 60, lives in an unplanned settlement in Lusaka, Zambia:
“I don’t have a latrine; I use my neighbours’. Sometimes they refuse so I go to a bar. If they see me, they don’t let me in. I feel embarrassed, but what can I do? At night, I go in a tin. I stay indoors as it’s dangerous to go out alone at night; people can rape you.”
Everyone can help support those women living without safe toilets by signing WaterAid’s pledge calling for global access to water and sanitation at www.wateraid.org/1in3.
